STARMAN!

[roach]

that was some pretty awesome stuff.

[sam]

Jeff Bridges?

[roach]

me and katie were having pspreeboard flashbacks. and that made us laugh. because he wasn't real. he was a fake black man made up buy some weird white guy.

[Irock]

Ok, y'all can laugh and point and think I'm a total moron for this, but MY MIND WAS TOTALLY BLOWN. All afternoon. Seriously, it was a fucking trip.

I totally thought he was a guy - a weird guy, but a guy. I don't think I believed Roy was dead, but I def thought Starman (and Mrs. Grumpy!) was real until that weirdness.

[roach]

I thought he was real all along because I really didn't put any thought to it... did the mr grumpy die? while i do have a memory it's is very very much resembling swiss cheese. i remember somethings like they just happened then forget some things that just happened. my parents said it was because I was a unique idiot.

[ifihadahifi]

I was fooled but it didnt' take long for it all to unravel. And I never really invested much into him to begin with to really care too much.
What got me was I was just becoming friends with y'all in real life and I got kinda paranoid after that. I also got a bit self-conscious afterwards b/c I figured folks would think my kids and their posts were bullshit as well.
I mean, Fi (Wee) was way too damn cute back then with her posts about flip-flops and pandcak syrup on her eggs. It had to be b.s., right?

[sam]

I'm not sure any of you people are real. Especially the ones I've met.

[Irock]

I thought he was real all along because I really didn't put any thought to it... did the mr grumpy die? while i do have a memory it's is very very much resembling swiss cheese. i remember somethings like they just happened then forget some things that just happened. my parents said it was because I was a unique idiot.

If I remember correctly, Starman posted that Roy had died - heart attack or something.

Then Roy posted that Starman had lied about his death, and that he was having some kind of psychitic episode (was there a police stand-off in there somewhere??). I don't remember the Mrs being involved in that drama tho.

[katie]

wait, didn't grumpyoldman have "cancer" too? i think people sent him cards and shit.

[roach]

there are times when making fun of cancer is funny.
1)when a president has it on his nose and butt.
2)when it happens to a weird-o.

[ifihadahifi]

Grumpy had cancer and went into remission before I showed up.
Then he named a horse after Ellie.
Then he got cancer again.
Then Gail delivered a bunch of cards from the spreeb to Grump at his place of employment.
Then he went into remission.
Then he ran a marathon.
Then he died.
Then he came back to life.
Then he disappeared.

Oh. Wait! Hang on!

Was he... JESUS?!

[sam]

JC didn't run a marathon, so maybe he's even better.

[mere1975]

Grumpy had cancer and went into remission before I showed up.
Then he named a horse after Ellie.
Then he got cancer again.
Then Gail delivered a bunch of cards from the spreeb to Grump at his place of employment.
Then he went into remission.
Then he ran a marathon.
Then he died.
Then he came back to life.
Then he disappeared.

Then Justin did some moderator magic and was like, "Heyyyy you guys, they post from the same IP" or something.

Then they shut down the PSpree forum, just as this was all coming to light because of those other issues with fans being angry that they were being screwed over and talked to like crap.

"Mrs. Grumpy" (also Roy) would show up from time to time to settle differences between Starman and Roy.

What a freaking WEIRDO!

- Mere "I'll admit it, I made a card and sent it to Gail for her to deliver" 1975

[mere1975]

What a freaking WEIRDO!

I meant to say. . .

What a freaking Lyle Lovett-looking WEIRDO!

- Mere "remember?" 1975

[James]

My memory of this is quite vivid even though I was very much in and out trying to establish myself in the UK at the time. I was also a moderator when it happened and this is what I remember of the whole incident.

I think the backlash started when Dalya posted something along the lines of the Christmas show being boring (or at least a part of it)...I think it was the 2005 one. I suppose that was a bit landmark because 1) people didn't generally comment anything but "super" or "mind blowing" or "awesome"...so anything that was lukewarm was considered, at the time, shocking. I guess. And 2) that it came from someone who was basically around from the beginning; they'd seen the rise of the band and seen it get better and better and better for 4+ years.

What happened next was inexcusable in the fact that a band member felt the need to respond to criticism directly. Now, most people don't know BT like I do, and I think there's a lot that gets lost with him because the people that "get him" sort of understand, even though that takes a while to get. It's easier to get in person as well. On a message board, things he might say in real life, when you hear the vocal inflection, you get him being a goof off, but in print it comes across very different. I should say that if you read Chunklet, too, you got it, because it was notorious for that. But this was in a place that wasn't used to his manner. And I think he knew that, but he just couldn't help himself.

The fact that he basically admitted a lack of practise time before the Christmas Show as a reason, expecting sympathy I guess, caused me to leave that particular scenario at the time. Normally I would defend the band left and right. There were previous years that we practised even less, but then we were usually coming off touring as well and that makes all the difference. The longer the layoff, the more things need to be practised. I can't remember the particular situation that year, but I found it a rather lazy admission in public. He should have known better, and I don't even know if it was true anyway.

So that was one incident.

The Starman thing was altogether odd. As stated, I was also a moderator at the time and, being a pattern junkie I always thought it was strange that the guy came on to post about one guy. The whole "death" thing and subsequent resurrection got me to looking at the posts. I found it really strange they had the same odd use of the ellipse at the end of thoughts. So I told Justin and he got to digging. Turns out (and Justin correct me if I'm wrong) they were using the same password on all three accounts! And the same IPs etc...

That sent shock waves through the board because, otherwise, people had been pretty honest. So much so that people were travelling the world meeting people they met on the message board. For cyberspace it had been a very honest place to that point.

I don't blame the band at all for pulling the board. It's a cost to them and to have all that negative feedback suddenly probably didn't look good to whatever labels they were on at the time and it's a headache a group of that size doesn't need given the others that happen on a daily basis. I was disappointed at the time but I think it's worked out well having a third party doing it now; there's that bit of separation.

Then there was that sarcastic story posted by Evan Hisey, which again, came across rather condescending. That didn't help either. But I don't remember much about it because I left direct involvement after the first two bits.

Going back to GrumpyOldMan though, the weird thing is, he was really real at times. There was the whole event where he met Brian Eno and was so excited about it. That actually happened. He met some other forum members for real. He was there and apparently nice.